Real estate website grader: a free audit of your agent website

What the grader checks, and why a client cares

Prefer to do your own REALTOR® website audit? This is the full checklist, in the order it counts. The points add up to 100. Pages for your area count most, because a page about exactly what someone searched is what search engines show first.

1. Pages for your area

   20 points

   What we check: We look for a page about selling a home in your area, one about buying there, one about home values there, and at least one for a particular kind of client there, such as first-time buyers or people relocating. A page only counts when its title or main heading names both the service and your area.

   Why a client cares: Someone who searches "sell my home in [your area]" is shown pages about exactly that. If you don’t have one, that search goes to an agent who does.

2. Your area in the title, main heading and first paragraph

   15 points

   What we check: Your home page title says your area and what you do, like "[your area] Real Estate Agent" or your own wording. Then, on each area page we find, we check that its search words (for example "sell your home in [your area]") appear in the page title, the main heading and the first paragraph. If you have no area pages yet, we check your home page’s main heading and first paragraph instead.

   Why a client cares: Those three spots are what Google reads first to decide what a page is about, and the title is what people see in the results before they click.

3. Local knowledge and proof

   10 points

   What we check: On your best area page: named local places (streets, schools, parks, freeways), a real number about your area (prices, days on market, sales), and client reviews.

   Why a client cares: Anyone can write "I know this market." Named streets and a real number show it, and reviews let your past clients say it for you.

4. Your license, years and record

   10 points

   What we check: Your license number in the body of the page, not only in the footer (in California, your DRE number); how long you’ve been in the business; your record, such as homes sold or clients helped; and a named person, not only a company. We can see whether these are on the page. We don’t check them against any official record.

   Why a client cares: Before someone trusts you with the biggest sale of their life, they check that you’re licensed and that you’ve done this before. Make it easy to find.

5. A way to reach you, before any sign-up

   9 points

   What we check: A phone number at the top of your home page that a visitor can tap to call; a contact form or booking link on the home page; something useful (a price, a number of days, recent sales) on your service pages before the first form; and no wall that makes visitors register before they can look around.

   Why a client cares: People who are ready to talk want to call now. People who aren’t ready want to look first. A sign-up wall loses both.

6. Google can find and read it

   9 points

   What we check: A secure address (https); a home page that doesn’t tell search engines to leave it out; a robots.txt file (the file that tells search engines what they may read) that lets Google in; a site map that lists your pages; a search description of 50 to 160 characters; a home page title of 60 characters or fewer; a page built with a header, one main section, a footer and one main heading; and every page with a main heading of its own (the same heading on every page tells Google they’re all the same page).

   Why a client cares: If Google can’t read your site, nothing else on this list matters. These are usually one-time fixes.

7. Your Google Business Profile

   6 points

   What we check: A link from your site to your Google Business Profile, a "leave us a Google review" link, and reviews shown on your site. We don’t look up your star rating or review count yet.

   Why a client cares: "Agent near me" searches are answered by Google profiles on the map. Linking your site and your profile tells Google they belong to the same person, and makes it easy for happy clients to leave a review.

8. Information search engines can read

   7 points

   What we check: Behind-the-scenes labels on your home page that read cleanly and say you’re a real estate agent; a questions-and-answers section that’s labelled the same way, with every labelled question visible on the page; and a share picture with its size, which texts and social apps show when someone shares your link.

   Why a client cares: These labels tell Google and AI tools, in their own terms, who you are, where you work and which questions you answer, so they can show it in results.

9. Speed on a phone

   5 points

   What we check: Two things we read off your home page: the first big picture is marked to load first, with its sizes, and pictures further down wait until they’re needed. Then Google’s PageSpeed test of your home page, loaded as a phone: a score of 80 or more, and the main content showing in under 2.5 seconds. If Google’s test doesn’t answer, we leave that part out of your score instead of counting it as zero.

   Why a client cares: Most people open an agent’s site on their phone. A slow page loses them before they read a word.

10. AI search tools can read it

    6 points

    What we check: Your robots.txt file welcomes ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI by name and blocks none of them; you have an llms.txt file (a plain-text summary of your site for AI tools); and an agents.json file that tells AI assistants what your site offers, with working links. llms.txt and agents.json are proposed standards: no search engine has said it ranks on them.

    Why a client cares: More people now ask AI tools to recommend an agent. If those tools can’t read your site, they can’t recommend you.

11. Home search on your site

    3 points

    What we check: A home search on your own site (a listings feed from your MLS, often called IDX) or a listings page. A link out to a portal’s search counts for one point.

    Why a client cares: Buyers come to search homes. If your search sends them to a portal, they may not come back.

12. Fair Housing wording

    No points

    What we check: We read every page for wording that describes the kind of people a place suits, instead of the place itself. It never adds or takes away points. If we find any, it’s listed first in your fixes as words to review, with the exact quote and the page it’s on. On a site we didn’t build, we can’t always tell your words from a listing description, so a quote may come from one.

    Why it matters: Fair Housing rules ask agents to describe the place (the homes, streets, parks and commute), never who should live there.

13. Worth a look

    No points

    What we check: Signs a page is trying too hard or is too thin: the same search phrase repeated far more than a person would say it, your city in nearly every sentence, every section heading carrying the keyword, the same keyword wording on most links to a page, two area pages that are the same page with the city swapped, extra keywords in your Google profile name, tag or category pages with one to three posts, pages that barely link to the rest of your site, rules or taxes stated with no link to the source, a question post that doesn’t answer the question first, and a long read before a ready client can call or book. These are warnings. They never add or take away points, but they show up in your fixes.

    Why it matters: Pages can fail to show up for doing too much as easily as for doing too little. Write for the person reading: answer first, say it once where Google looks first, link to what helps, then talk like a local.

This score measures what's on your site. Rankings also depend on things a page can't show, like links and how long a site has been around. No one can promise a ranking.

Questions agents ask